Woman who spent $15,000 on illegal bottom and hip injections admits she's lucky to be alive after her obsession could have killed her

Vanity Wonder admitted on This Morning she didn't know what she was injected with the first time she had the procedure

She was driven by competition with other dancers over who had the biggest bottom

The injections gave her an infection so she then needed silicone implants

She regrets her current size but feels lucky to be alive as illegal injections have killed other women

|

UPDATED:

16:18 GMT, 16 July 2012

An American mother-of-two who spent $15,000 to enhance the size of her hips and bottom says she's lucky to be alive after her 'obsession' could have killed her.

Vanity Wonder spoke to Eamon Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning today and admitted she was 'dumb' to go to extreme lengths to get a curvy posterior.

After showing pictures where Vanity looked 'bootilicious' before having hundreds of the illegal injections, Ruth asked the 30-year-old why she had wanted to change her body shape.

Scroll down for video

Regrets: Vanity Wonder appeared on This Morning to show Eamon Holmes and Ruth Langsford how injections and then silicone implants have left her with a disproportionately large bottom

Curvaceous: The 30-year-old told the amazed presenters she become obsessed with making her bum bigger when she worked as a dancer

'This size was not my goal': Vanity said the illegal injections gave her an infection which meant she had to have silicone implants so her bottom didn't look lumpy

Vanity admitted it had become an obsession as she felt she had to compete against other women in her job as a dancer.

She said: 'When I heard about butt injections I thought it sounded stupid but after a year in that environment as a dancer, everyone was doing it, it wasn't such a foreign concept. I thought I might as well try it.

'Then it became a competition – not for men but against other women. So many of us were doing it because we wanted to better than the other person.'

Don't do it: Vanity wanted to share her story to warn other women against having illegal injections. She said she was lucky just to get an infection but other women have been killed as they didn't even know what they were being injected with

Vanity revealed each procedure involved at least nine injections in each cheek. She described how the injections felt like being struck by lightning and that they could often leak but this didn't deter her.

She admitted after the first treatment she didn't even know what she had been injected with. 'The first time I went for injections I didn't know what she used. She said it was soya bean oil but after doing my research, I don't believe her,' she said.

Vanity developed an infection as a result of the illegal injections but even this didn't make her stop having them. However, she explained it then meant she had to have silicone implants as the infection had left her bottom looking like 'a sack of oranges'.

She explained: 'It did become addictive but it got infected so I was left with lumps. So I had a choice, I could have a medium-sized lumpy butt or keep padding it with silicone to make it better. So it wasn't my goal to get this big but padding it with silicone is how this happened.'

Before: After seeing these pictures of Vanity before her injections, Ruth asked the mother-of-two why she wanted to change herself. She said it was thanks to competition with other women in her job as a dancer

Eamon asked Vanity to stand up from the This Morning sofa to reveal just how large her bottom is now. 'That's quite a curve,' he commented.

Vanity admitted she isn't happy with her size but she has learnt to live with it because surgery to reverse it would be too risky. She added that in light of learning of women who have been killed after having the injections, she is now just happy to be alive.

She said: 'Truthfully I would like smaller butt but I'm happy I didn't die and still here for my children. I did so much dumb stuff with my body I'm lucky that I'm still living. When I look in the mirror, I think I would like a smaller butt, it's hard to go shopping, but I'm just happy I'm still here.'

Standing in the corridor of the This Morning studios, Vanity shows how the hip injections have also altered her body shape

These close-ups reveal just how dramatically her figure has been changed as a result of injections and implants

Vanity realises that she has been one of the lucky ones after reading reports of women dying who had been injected with Fix-A-Flat tyre sealant and even cement.

She is also aware of just how popular the injections are having worked as an assistant to a black market practitioner, who treated women as varied as a 17-year-old brought in by her proud mother and pensioner in her seventies.

It was this job that gave her the wake-up call she needed to stop having the injections herself, as she was faced with jail for being involved in the illegal practice.

Speaking out: Vanity hopes her experience will deter other women from having illegal butt injections

She said: 'Having the infection didn't make me stop. It was only when I was faced with jail and being away from my kids.'

Vanity is no longer a dancer and hasn't had injections since May 2011. She now says she wants to dedicate her life to warning others of the dangers of having illegal injections.

She has written a book, Shot Girls, which charts her own experience of having illegal injections and warns against following her example.

'I wanted to tell the truth 100 per cent so people know what it really is. You can get implants but injections made freely into your butt is not legal in any sense of the word,' she said.